River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny & Alex

[KTMphil]

River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny & Alex

Alex had done this route a few days earlier, it involves 20 or more river crossing, no rain so we thought we'd give it a shot.



When you exit the tarmac road south of R121/ canal road there's an interesting dis-used gravel pit with "lake" housing.

The first dirt loop area we has loose stone and gravel

The hills here had some nasty deep ruts from the rain which kept you on your toes

Pretty loose and rutted

Quick break for a death stick

As you can see it was pretty dry, Alex always smiling when he's dirt riding

Johnny's beautiful WR450

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails Huai Kwang with Johnny & Alex

We then headed south west so that that we could get to the trails that had the river crossings

If you like water crossings this is the place to come, you could cross rivers all day

It was a little muddy in some of the low areas

This steep river bank gave Alex a small problem

Some of the steep banks with loose dirt were hard to get up

The exit from the river here was pretty nasty, Johnny went of surveying for a better choice

I then dropped the drz in a river, drowned it. We took the spark plug out turned it over, lots of water came out, put the spark plug back in, it wouldnt start

Changed the spark plug, still wouldn't start. The airbox and filter were completly dry, so it seemed like water had not gone down the airbox snorkel.

Next we lifted the bike up as in if a huge wheelie to see if any water came out of the exhaust, none came out, all a bit of a mystery now.

Couldn't get it going, so Johhny and Alex took turns towing me to try and bump start it, it wouldn't start so we towed it through about 8 river crossing with steep muddy banks, the bike had to be walked through the rivers while being towed.

Johnny's huge rack came in useful for towing

Back to tarmac at last

Managed to persuade a nice Thai family to put the DRZ in their pick up and take it 30km back to Chiang Mai

Alex has done more of this route further north west with Alan, below is a copy of his tracks from that day

 

[Marco]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

Managed to persuade a nice Thai family to put the DRZ in their pick up and take it 30km back to Chiang Mai

How much the "Persuade" took???

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

1,000 bht back to Chiang Mai, a great deal.

Johnny had gone off earlier to try and get a pick-up to come get me from the jungle (to save the towing), he got up to 3,000 bht but still no one wanted to risk going to where the bike was drowned!

Managed to persuade a nice Thai family to put the DRZ in their pick up and take it 30km back to Chiang Mai[/color]

How much the "Persuade" took???

 

[Marco]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

1,000 bht back to Chiang Mai, a great deal.

Johnny had gone off earlier to try and get a pick-up to come get me from the jungle (to save the towing), he got up to 3,000 bht but still no one wanted to risk going to where the bike was drowned!

Managed to persuade a nice Thai family to put the DRZ in their pick up and take it 30km back to Chiang Mai[/color]

How much the "Persuade" took???

Fantastic,,,, that is always nice way to do something out of ordinary and still have good way to come back home,, maybe in one day i get in to dirt as well...but in my part of TH, have no interesting parts as 1000KM2 are rice fields only...even the tarmac roads here are strait km after km,,so for me with my "Buss" it's use of Cruise control only and get bored.... :

 

[MastaMax]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

So that's why I didn't see you at the rider's corner last night Looks like an interesting route but to be avoided during raining season...
btw, good idea to carry a rope around, never thought about that.

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

So that's why I didn't see you at the rider's corner last night Looks like an interesting route but to be avoided during raining season...
btw, good idea to carry a rope around, never thought about that.

Max- i'm always carrying a tow rope from now on.

We got the bike started just now drained the carb., full of water, oil is full of water, milky color (so water must have got in the air intake snorkel), so that will get flushed today.

 

[alexuk]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

First time lucky for Phil on this hill

Lots of gravel/rocky tracks, a nice change from the slippy red mud around here.
We got lost on the mass of tracks for an hour or 2 before going to the rivers.
2nd time round, he went down

Theres a muddy section before you hit the water crossings.It can be slippy getting in/out. Some banks steep and may have patches of soft mud hidden underwater where you can easily lose a font wheel, as I often found out

Theres a lot of riding in the stream,sometimes the route out is blocked so you stay in the stream till you find another way.
There were a few fallen trees last time to circumnavigate, a pocket saw came in handy
heres a pic from last week

We were having a great time there until Phil decided he wanted to try out his new tow rope on us.

Theres a couple of routes out at the end, one involves a very steep hill or 2, so isnt always doable, the other is your usual steep, slippy when wet red mud , so considering the water levels change very fast, really is a dry season route.
It was a major problem getting phil out, we could've been deeper in, could've been wetter, noone could come to get us anyway. no phone signals. Did we have enough mozzy repellent? No, but we had lots to drink AND a water purifier
I didnt bring much as I didnt intend to do the whole route
The weather was god yesterday, cool by thai standards,and just a bit of drizzle

Towing practice was not so straightforward, I tried on the footpegs but the rope got caught in the wheel.
Had to stop on the corners and in the stream to let phil get off and walk the bike a few feet

Spidy mai?

Whilst waiting for jonny and phil I noticed this massive spider in the banana tree beside me. The body was 2inches or more

A fantastic trail, but we spent 3+ hours until it got dark rescuing the DRZ

 

[Marco]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

Nice photos,, those are really nice and adventurous riding as one can't see what is waiting to him under water.... :mrgreen:

 

[Midnitemapper]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

Nice one Phill, waiting to hear the reason it was a no go?
When drowned.
First thing I take off is the carby bowl, The XR has a 17mm cap which is used to quickly change jets or check for water in the bottom of the bowl.
My bike actually tried to start? When I took the bowl off it was full of water.
Plenty of water in the airbox, I think most of the water comes up through the drain tubes?
Took 200 meters of towing after pulling the plug and spinning the motor for 10 mins. Always seems to be residual water in the intake or something that takes a long time to clear? Pulling the plug for inspection, if will not start, will tell the story. XR4 plug is a pain to get out.
Amazing with my bike no water in the oil.

Tell me about the rear tires on the WR450 were can I get some?
Fuark just got a batch of 5.10 Ircs which are OK but too tall for my short legs.
Upcoming post on Visit to Cope here in Vientiane
below

 

[AlexUSA]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

I highly recommend the NW portion of this trail up to the Hmong village (with truck road then leading to 1269). Can be somewhat challenging single track in places getting up and down the river banks.

(note the orange plastic arrow on the log in the foreground of the pic - follow these if coming from the North)

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

This was Alan in the same area a few days earlier

Zane also

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

Don - the rear tire on Johnny's WR450 is a Moto Z 18x120, same as i now have. Front and back set are around 2,500 Baht. I can bring you some if you want them?

DRZ not starting was water in the carb, also the crank case had filled up with water, could have been from the crank case vent as the airbox and foam airfilter were completely dry, no water came out of the exhaust either.

Nice one Phill, waiting to hear the reason it was a no go?
When drowned.
First thing I take off is the carby bowl, The XR has a 17mm cap which is used to quickly change jets or check for water in the bottom of the bowl.
My bike actually tried to start? When I took the bowl off it was full of water.
Plenty of water in the airbox, I think most of the water comes up through the drain tubes?
Took 200 meters of towing after pulling the plug and spinning the motor for 10 mins. Always seems to be residual water in the intake or something that takes a long time to clear? Pulling the plug for inspection, if will not start, will tell the story. XR4 plug is a pain to get out.
Amazing with my bike no water in the oil.

Tell me about the rear tires on the WR450 were can I get some?
Fuark just got a batch of 5.10 Ircs which are OK but too tall for my short legs.
Upcoming post on Visit to Cope here in Vientiane
below
[attachment=0:27bnkgvg]mortar.jpg[/attachment:27bnkgvg]

 

[johnnysneds]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &

Here's all the video from the river crossing trip. Battery ran out so didn't manage to catch all the good stuff.

Looking forward to going all the way on this route, 10/10 trail

 

[KTMphil]

Re: River crossing trails towards Huai Kwang with Johnny &



Photo: Alex Bell